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The objective of this article is to discuss the current practice related to trade and sustainable development chapters (TSD) in the EU free trade agreements and compare it with the model promoted by the US. The paper provides an analysis of primary and secondary literature on TSD chapters and examines two cases based on the specific EU and US experiences. The major question is whether the EU should follow the US approach in order to strengthen the enforcement mechanism of its TSD chapters. As the case of dispute between US and Guatemala shows, the sanction-based approach has not proved as an adequate tool to address non-compliance with labour and environmental standards. On the contrary, cooperation between parties along with capacity building seems as a more relevant approach when it comes to compliance with international standards. This article argues that main challenges for enforcement of TSD chapters are related to strengthening of civil society participation, cooperation between the Parties and monitoring implementation.
Hradilová et al. (Sat,) studied this question.